The Analysis Death Spiral

It happened to me again the other day: I was scrolling through social media and happened upon a company that’s offering a concept that I had thought of years ago. Back then, I was caught up in other projects and mentally filed the idea as one to come back to later, so while I’m mildly annoyed that someone beat me to the punch, I’m glad the concept is taking life because I think it will make a difference in the market.

However, it got me thinking about that crucial period between coming up with a great idea and actually bringing it to life. This is the most delicate time in the lifecycle of any new concept because it runs the risk of being analysed to the point of no return. I see this in the corporate world all the time, whether it’s a change in process, a new service line or new product offering: The person or team responsible wants every detail to be perfect and won’t go live until they are 150% sure of their success. While I appreciate this on a certain level – and I’m certainly not saying that all analysis is bad – I’ve seen numerous instances where a lack of balance between analysis and action absolutely kills an idea.

I don’t know if it’s due to a lack of confidence or fear of failure, but we sometimes erect barriers to our own success. We assume we need to make incremental progress and ignore opportunities for step changes, those big moves that upend everything. I can understand that on a certain level, but at the same time, what great invention didn’t have issues or flaws the first time it saw the light of day? Were the men and women behind these concepts concerned that they might not be perfect? Of course – but they believed in the concept enough to push forward, knowing they could iron out the flaws as they went along.

If the market is ripe with an opportunity and you’ve done due diligence with your company policies and government regulations, then perfection prior to launch should not be your goal – instead, your approach should be to get your idea out there before your competition so you can test it faster, re-evaluate it quicker and adjust your offering and any associated marketing as necessary, knowing that any issues that arise can be tweaked in response to user feedback. That way, once your idea is working and gaining traction you can out-execute the competition and the copycats – but first you have to get going!

Maybe this is the wake up call you’ve been waiting for, the one that breaks you out of your analysis death spiral and motivates you to hit the ground running. If so, great. If not, just remember that the only ideas that are copied by others are the ones that are working already, not the ones sketched on the piece of paper in your pocket.